ment, Guiliano was not present, and they had therefore to experience that "hope deferred," which, whether honourable or infamous, "maketh the heart sick." They now hatched another plan; the frustrated one had been stigmatized by a proposed outrage on hospitality; the anticipated one was by a proposed defiance of all sense of sacredness, or even of Deity. On the following Sunday, in the church of Santa Maria del Fiore, at the moment of the elevation of the host (!!) the daggers of the panting zealots were to quench their thirst in gore. Montesicco, whom we named above, had been selected to despatch Guiliano, and had readily accepted the terms, when the private house of Lorenzo was to be the stage for the tragedy; but he, the hardy soldier, shrunk from the idea of perpetrating the crime in the church.* Two churchmen undertook the soldier's leavings. Cardinal Riario intimated his desire of being present at the church on Sunday, April 26th, 1478. Lorenzo, with characteristic courtesy, invites him to his house in Florence; and the cardinal accepts the offer, attended by a large retinue of followers. Once more, all the conspirators, annoyed by not finding Guiliano present, but determined to lose no more time, they seek the accomplishment of a half assassination, rather than none at all. They burn for a total excision, hip and thigh, root and branch, of the Medici family; but rather than be foiled, they are willing to sing, in the minor key, "We've scotched the snake, not killed it." What, then, was their satisfaction on learning that though Guiliano had not appeared at the banquet to be feasted, he would appear at the church to be killed. And now the cardinal was seated at church, and the service had begun. Still Guiliano was absent. To hasten his coming, two of the conspirators left the church, to meet and conduct him thither. He accompanied the fawning traitors with simple trustfulness, little thinking that their real purpose, when they twined their arms so lovingly about his shoulders and waist, was to discover what armour he might have been accoutred withal. And now the sacred roof covers them. The bell rings-the wafer is upraised—and instantaneously the dagger of Bandini is plunged into Guiliano's breast. He staggers a few steps forward, and falls exhausted. Another conspirator rushes to make assurance doubly sure, and stabs him again and again, even after the pallor of death had preached peace to the infuriate ruffian. Lorenzo was not thus to die. As soon as Bandini had reeked * "He said he never could find courage enough to perpetrate such a deed in a church, adding sacrilege to treachery; and this was the beginning of the failure of the enterprise."—Machiavelli. † A fact. his hatred on Guiliano, he made for his elder brother; and in his way stabbed a faithful servant of the Medici. Meanwhile, the partisans of the intended victim had time to encircle him about, and in the midst of the fell tumult, to hurry him into the sacristy, till opportunity and increasing numbers of friends allowed them to conduct him safely home. The rage of the populace against the conspirators was extreme. "The streets," says Roscoe, "were polluted with the dead bodies and mangled limbs of the slaughtered." The family of the Pazzi were brought to ruin and disgrace, and the utmost sympathy expressed for Lorenzo and his cause, while triumph at his escape found vent in universal congratulations.* Pope Sixtus might have had the decency, as well as common sense, to have hid his diminished head behind the arras of the Vatican after this exposé, and the ill odour that must needs be affixed to the name of the immaculate Vicar. But his temper was too hot to allow a disgraceful defeat to soothe its bubblings. The Babylonian furnace was heated seven times more than hitherto, because the golden idol of the papal wishes had not met due adulation and success. "Confiscate the goods of the Medici!" he cries in impotent malice. "Confiscate the goods of all the Florentines! Nay, imprison all the Florentines!" He had been vile, and he would yet be more vile; he anathematized Lorenzo and the whole posse comitatus of the corporation of Florence. Lorenzo he called "the child of iniquity, and the nursling of perdition." And in his published manifesto he, after dilating on the eminent gentleness of his own disposition, declared that, "according to the example of our Saviour, he (the Pope) had long suffered in peace the insults and injuries of his enemies, and that he should still have continued to exercise his forbearance, had not Lorenzo de Medici, with the magistrates of Florence and their abettors, discarding the fear of God, inflamed with fury, and instigated by diabolical suggestions, laid violent hands on ecclesiastical persons, proh dolor et inauditum scelus! hung up the archbishop, imprisoned the cardinal, and by various means destroyed and slaughtered their followers." The ecclesiastics and civilians, not only of Florence, but also of other places, retorted with severity on the Pope, charging him with accumulated guilt in the business which he was agitating only to his own confusion. We have no space left for continuing any narration of the consequent tumults and war which distracted Italy at the close of the fifteenth century. What we have cited is, at any rate, a historical memorandum of Popery. "At sunt attonito quæ dare pectori CANTABRIGIENSIS. LAURENS Etruriæ caput."-Ode by Politiano. ON THE EXERCISE OF PATRONAGE IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. HAVING pointed out, in what we have written before upon this subject, the evils connected with the present system (or, should we rather say, the present want of system?), in the bestowal of the patronage of the Church of England,―having called attention to the lamentable manner in which that which ought to be encouraged is too often discouraged by those who have the patronage of the Church in their hands, it remains to say something of the remedy for these evils, or, at least, to give some suggestions, in conclusion, as to what ought to be done. And, in the first instance,-first in order, as first in importance,we would look to the Lord, and call upon all our fellow-Christians to do the same. The Lord Jesus Christ, who was delivered for our offences, was raised again for our justification; he ascended up on high, gloriously and triumphantly, leading captivity captive, and received gifts for men; he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, to be the Head over all things to the Church, which is his body, and to him is given all power, authority, and dominion in heaven and in earth. This is no matter of speculation-no mere doctrine; it is a blessed truth, a glorious fact-of daily practical importance; full of encouragement, full of consolation to the believer. HE is especially exalted to give pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the Church, which is his body. He walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks ; He holds the seven stars in his right hand; HE has the seven spirits of God. All this may be neglected or forgotten, even by a large proportion of his people; it is, nevertheless, indisputably and immutably true, and the inevitable inference is, that all appointments in the Church are ultimately in his hand; they are ordered and over-ruled by him in righteous judgment, or in sovereign grace and tender mercy. When he himself, in regard to his most important and glorious office, is neglected and despised by his people, what can we expect but that he will exercise his power and authority in righteous judgment? When we return to him, with deep humiliation, confessing our past sins, and humbly giving unto him the glory which is due unto his name, then may we, with scriptural reason, expect that he will exercise his power in tender mercy, and every believer will rejoice to know, and to remember, that in spite of all that we may have to confess and bewail, in spite of all human imperfections -in spite of all the opposition both of earth and hell-all hearts are in his hand, and all events under his control. He can do, and will do, according to his sovereign will and glorious power, and none can stay his hand. But what is the fact, in regard to the acknowledgment of Christ in His glorious office as the Head of HIS Church? Has he been duly honoured, or has he been neglected-practically neglected and despised? It is highly important that his whole Church, and every individual among his people, should search out and confess their sins in this matter; and that, confessing, lamenting, renouncing our sins past, we should, by humble, earnest, persevering prayer, put everything connected with the appointment of ministers in the Church into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom it belongs, and fervently implore him both to raise up and multiply pastors and teachers after his own heart, and to put them into those stations in which most effectually they may serve him, and exercise the gifts which he has given, to the edification and enlargement of his Church upon earth. We must confess that we have no hope of real improvement unless it begins in this way. All real reformation in the Church must begin in the closet,-in secret intercourse between the souls of men and their Saviour. The Reformers were men who spent three, four, six, and even eight hours of every day in prayer. Here was the secret of their strength, and of the wonderful things which they were enabled to effect. But, having thus begun, we must remember that we are Protestants. As such, we must remember that the duty of private judgment devolves upon us. We must confess that we do not much like that very common phrase, the right of private judgment; it is often used, as if men had some natural right to judge and act for themselves in matters of religion; and, in the exercise of that right, to reject the Scriptures and the Gospel if they please! Is not this the Infidel notion of the rights of man? We have no notion of any such natural right, independent of, or anterior to, the reading and searching of the Holy Scriptures, and we must protest, yea, earnestly protest, against any view of private judgment which would seem to admit, for a moment, that any man has, or can have, a right to reject or to neglect the Scriptures. Moreover, a right seems to be something which a man may exercise or not just as he pleases; the term does not imply that he is under any obligation to use it. But our view of private judgment is this, that it is a scriptural duty enjoined upon us by the authority of Him who says, "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good;" and again, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world." It is not, therefore, optional with us to exercise our private judgment; neither is it occasional. It is a solemn duty imposed upon us by God himself, for the discharge or exercise of which, upon all suitable occasions, we are responsible to him. Now, there is nothing-there can be nothing-more important to the welfare of the Church, in regard to the administration of its concerns in its present mutilated state, than the right appointment of suitable pastors and ministers. Every Christian is concerned herein. As a member of the body of Christ,-interested in the welfare and growth of the whole and of every part,-it concerns him that faithful ministers should be placed in posts of usefulness; that each faithful minister should be placed in the position in which he may be most useful to the Church at large. Is it not, therefore, the bounden duty of Christians to watch over all appointments so far as they have opportunity, and to protest against every glaring misappropriation of Church patronage It is a poor sort of Protestantism which should lead us to protest against one class only of anti-scriptural evils and iniquities,—which would protest against evils in a Church from which we have separated but not against evils in our own. This would be protesting against the iniquities with which we are less concerned, and neglecting those which more nearly and closely concern us. The question, therefore, is,— and it is one which demands the deepest consideration,-whether it be not our duty, as true Protestants, to look more closely at the subject of Church patronage than ever we have done yet, and to be prepared to enter a solemn, decided, public protest against every abuse of it which comes within the range of our observation ? We are not strongly disposed to defer much to public opinion, in the sense in which the term is commonly used: that is to say, to the opinion of that careless, ungodly multitude, which constitutes the world, as distinguished from, and opposed to, the Church of Christ. But some abuses are so gross and flagrant, that it becomes a duty, not only to appeal to all true and zealous Protestants, but to appeal also to the common sense and common honesty of plain, old-fashioned Englishmen. Will the bestowal of Church patronage endure examination before this tribunal ? Take the whole list of our bishops. There are some for whom we thank God; in regard to whom we acknowledge that the great Head of the Church has exercised his power, and (in much long-suffering and tender mercy) overruled the minds of men and all adverse circumstances so as to give us men who desire and endeavour to discharge some of the most important duties of the Episcopal office to the glory of God, and to the good of his Church. Let every such instance be acknowledged with humble thankfulness to Him who is Lord of all. Let us also acknowledge, even in the most painful cases, his righteous judgments. However sad and awful some of them may be, our sins, as a Church and as a nation, have deserved the worst. But when, from these exercises of profound humiliation at the foot of the cross, we turn to the sober contemplation of the appointment of our bishops, and (taking name after name) begin to ask ourselves, and to ask of history's authentic page, Why was this man made a bishop? and why was that man placed upon the bench ?—we think that common sense will stand amazed, and common honesty will blush at not a few of the appointments which we shall have to review; at least, if these questions be asked, with due reference to the devoted piety, the Evangelical godliness, the theological learning and sound Protestant principles which ought to be found in a Christian bishop and a Protestant prelate; and which, in some remarkable measure and combination, are essential in these times to the due discharge of the momentous duties of the Episcopal office. The abuse of patronage in every department of the Church, is, we confess, an evil of long standing. It may plead prescription, and (as all parties are guilty) all may deprecate investigation or discussion. But we are PROTESTANTS, and we remember that neither antiquity nor universality were allowed by our Reformers to shield the iniquities of Popery from scriptural examination and rebuke. Let no one, in these days, be so utterly unprotestant, as to plead long standing and wide prevalence of evil, in opposition to searching, inquiring, and (wherever it is needed) |